Accurate placement of structural support members such as beams, joists, rafters, and particularly roof trusses can require several manual steps (e.g., measuring, positioning, re-measuring, temporarily tacking or bracing the members, etc.) that can result in tedious progress and less than safe intermediate placement as the framing members are erected into a building.
Many different approaches, as well as several patented apparatus and methods have been applied to reduce the time and increase the safety of building structural support structures. For example, Australian patent number AU 20022313378 owned by Mitek Holdings, Inc. issued 15 Mar. 2007 and is captioned, “Building Frame Member and Brace,” and deals with some of the foregoing issues and problems encountered by tradesmen attempting to fabricate structural support frame elements. The Brace of AU 20022313378 provides a brace with a pivotal connection and a free swinging end. The brace thus has a first transport and handling position and then rotates to a second use position; however, the '378 brace does not lay flush against the surface of the structural support member when in the first transport and handling position, rather it extends upwardly exposing metal corners presenting a safety hazard to workers and subjecting the brace to damage by contact with other things during handling, storage, or transport. Moreover, the brace does not have additional means for retaining the brace in the first transport and handling position and may swing loose during handling, such as hoisting the structural support member into position in the framing. This can create safety issues and additional assembly problems, particularly if the brace is damaged. Moreover, compensation means are not provided by the '378 brace for when the first pivotal connection is not accurately fastened to the structural support member. Moreover, in that each end of the '378 brace extends entirely over both structural support members that it spans between, uniform positioning of the brace on adjacent structural support members is not possible in that the brace ends would overlap. Thus, staggering and offsetting the braces when applied to the structural support members is required.
More recently U.S. Pat. No. 8,191,335 captioned, “Framing Guide” issued to Mark K. Davis on 5 Jun. 2012; U.S. Pat. No. 8,176,648 captioned, “Construction Spacer” issued to Bret Bradley on 15 May 2012; U.S. Pat. No. 7,213,377 captioned, “Device and Method for Spacing and Bracing Framing Components” issued to Gerald Sackett on 8 May 2007; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,993,882 captioned, “Truss Spacer and Brace” issued to Crawford et al. on 7 Feb. 2006. Prior to the issuance of the Australian '378 patent U.S. Pat. No. 5,884,448 captioned, “Truss Spacer and Support, Method of Use and Structures Made Therewith” issued to Michael Pellock on 23 Mar. 1999. Each of the foregoing issued patents are hereby incorporated herein in their respective entirety as if fully set forth herein.
In addition to these issued patents at least two recently published U.S. patent applications deal with some of the issues addressed by the present disclosure; namely, U.S. published patent applications nos. 2012/0180422 to Sam Norturno (published 19 Jul. 2012) captioned “Truss Spacer” and 2011/054770 to Niels Friis of Denmark (published 30 Jun. 2011) captioned “Truss Mounting Brace.” These two published applications are also hereby incorporated herein in their respective entireties.
Generally, known spacers are attached during positioning of the framing members during the erection of the structure when the framing members are positioned in the final or near final positions in the structure. This involves manual attachment operation on both ends of the spacer on elevated structural members. It would be beneficial to minimize the number of operations and the simplicity of operations related to utilizing spacers on elevated structural members. Fewer operations and simpler operations on elevated structural members provide a safer and more efficient framing operation.
Roof trusses are manufactured in truss manufacturing facilities and are shipped bundled in stacks, to job sites where they are generally individually elevated to their final support position and nailed into place. It would be advantageous to attach spacers before hoisting the trusses to their final support position. It also would be advantageous that the spacers are secured to the truss or other structural support member during any transportation, handling, hoisting to their final position. It would also be advantageous to have the spacers have minimal portions protruding away from the truss during such transportation, handling, and hoisting of the trusses.